U.S. jets hit Libya after shift to NATO

Airstrikes continued as allies griped

Apr. 14, 2011 12:00 AMAssociated Press

WASHINGTON - Amid complaints from allies that the U.S. military should be doing more in the Libya operation, Pentagon officials disclosed Wednesday that American fighter jets have continued airstrikes inside the country even after the United States turned the mission over to NATO last week.

The revelation came as Pentagon officials laid out U.S. participation in the Libya conflict over the past 10 days, including that Americans have flown 35 percent of all air missions.

Those missions, they said, include bombing attacks against Libyan surface-to-air missile launchers, as well as surveillance and refueling operations. It was the first time the Pentagon acknowledged that airstrikes continued after the U.S. handed over control of the Libya mission to NATO on April 4.

Meanwhile, NATO partners launched new airstrikes on targets held by Moammar Gadhafi as rebel leaders urged a stronger air campaign that will allow them to advance on Gadhafi's territory.

Detailing Wednesday's bombings, a NATO official confirmed a strike on at least one ammunition bunker outside the Libyan capital, Tripoli. He asked that his name not be used because the military alliance was not yet releasing the information publicly.

Libya's official JANA news agency reported airstrikes Wednesday in three other places: Misrata, Libya's third-largest city; Sirte, a Gadhafi stronghold and home to the Libyan leader's tribe; and Aziziyah, about 22 miles south of Tripoli. Jana said the strike in Misrata was in an area "populated with residents."

But Mohammed Abdullah, a Misrata activist and a professor, said residents had mostly evacuated that part of Misrata several weeks ago after Gadhafi troops stormed it.

"Gadhafi troops are misleading NATO," he said. "The Gadhafi forces turn the shops into weapon caches and then claim that the areas are residential."

Libyan rebels have been pleading for more NATO airstrikes as top Western and Arab envoys gather in Qatar's capital to discuss ways to end the Libyan crisis.

Mohammed Ismail Tajouri, a 54-year-old businessman who joined the rebels in their stronghold of Benghazi, said having a rebel delegation attend the Qatar meeting amounts to key international recognition.

"We are proud of this," he said.

In Tripoli, Gadhafi's government denounced proposals by rebel leaders that they be given some of the regime's assets that have been frozen as part of international sanctions.

"That is financial piracy," Finance Minister Abdulhafid Zlitni said of such a transfer. In all, about $120 billion in Libyan assets have been frozen, he told a news conference.

Libya's deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim, alleged that Lebanese militants have joined the ranks of the rebels but did not provide evidence.

Kaim claimed that several members of the Lebanese group Hezbollah are fighting alongside the rebels in Misrata and that members of another militant group, Amal, are training rebel fighters in Benghazi.

At Wednesday's meeting in Qatar, a spokesman for Libyan rebels, Mohammed Shammam, urged the U.S. military to reassert a stronger role in the NATO-led air campaign or risk more civilian casualties in the fighting between Gadhafi and forces seeking to end his four-decade rule.